The Nation's Favourite Poems
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The Nation's Favourite Poems
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Narrated by:
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John Nettles
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Siobhan Redmond
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Greg Wise
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Emma Fielding
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By:
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BBC Audiobooks
About this listen
Forty-five of Britain's best-loved poems, read by John Nettles, Siobhan Redmond, Greg Wise and Emma Fielding.
In a national poll conducted to discover Britain's favourite poem, Rudyard Kipling's 'If -' was voted number one. This unique anthology brings together over forty poems from the poll, including the top ten.
Here is poignant war poetry (Wilfred Owen's 'Dulce et Decorum Est' and 'Anthem for Doomed Youth', Rupert Brooke's 'The Soldier' and Siegfried Sassoon's 'Everyone Sang' ); romantic verse such as Shakespeare's 'Sonnet 18: Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?' and W. B. Yeats' 'When You Are Old'; Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear's great nonsense poems 'Jabberwocky' and 'The Owl and the Pussy-Cat', and much more. Classics such as Wordsworth's 'The Daffodils' and Tennyson's 'The Lady of Shallot' sit alongside contemporary poetry like Allan Ahlberg's 'Please Mrs Butler' and Wendy Cope's 'Bloody Men'.
Superbly read by John Nettles, Siobhan Redmond, Greg Wise and Emma Fielding, this popular collection includes many of the very best examples of British verse, as chosen by poetry lovers nationwide.
The poems included in this collection are:
1 'If -' by Rudyard Kipling, read by John Nettles
2 'The Lady of Shallot' by Alfred Lord Tennyson, read by Siobhan Redmond
3 'The Listeners' by Walter de la Mare, read by Greg Wise
4 'Not Waving but Drowning' by Stevie Smith, read by Siobhan Redmond
5 'The Daffodils' by William Wordsworth, read by John Nettles
6 'To Autumn' by John Keats, read by Siobhan Redmond
7 'The Lake Isle of Innisfree' by William Butler Yeats, read by Emma Fielding
8 'Dulce et Decorum Est' by Wilfred Owen, read by Greg Wise
9 'Ode to a Nightingale' by John Keats, read by Siobhan Redmond
10 'He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven' by William Butler Yeats, read by John Nettles
11 'Remember' by Christina Rossetti, read by Siobhan Redmond
12 'Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard' by Thomas Gray, read by John Nettles
13 'Fern Hill' by Dylan Thomas, read by John Nettles
14 'Leisure' by William Henry Davies, read by Emma Fielding
15 'The Highwayman' by Alfred Noyes, read by Greg Wise
16 'To His Coy Mistress' by Andrew Marvell, read by Greg Wise
17 'Dover Beach' by Matthew Arnold, read by John Nettles
18 'The Tyger' by William Blake, read by John Nettles
19 'Adlestrop' by Edward Thomas, read by Siobhan Redmond
20 'The Soldier' by Rupert Brooke, read by Greg Wise
21 'Sea-Fever' by John Masefield, read by John Nettles
22 'Upon Westminster Bridge' by William Wordsworth, read by Greg Wise
23 'How Do I Love Thee?' by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, read by Emma Fielding
24 'Cargoes' by John Masefield, read by Greg Wise
25 'Jabberwocky' by Lewis Carroll, read by Emma Fielding
26 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner' by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, read by John Nettles
27 'Ozymandias of Egypt' by Percy Bysshe Shelley, read by Greg Wise
28 'Abou ben Adhem' by Leigh Hunt, read by John Nettles
29 'Everyone Sang' by Siegfried Sassoon, read by Greg Wise
30 'The Windhover' by Gerard Manley Hopkins, read by Siobhan Redmond
31 'Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night' by Dylan Thomas, read by John Nettles
32 'Sonnet 18: Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?' by William Shakespeare, read by Siobhan Redmond
33 'When You Are Old' by William Butler Yeats, read by Emma Fielding
34 'Lessons of the War (To Alan Mitchell): Naming of Parts' by Henry Reed, read by John Nettles
35 'The Darkling Thrush' by Thomas Hardy, read by Emma Fielding
36 'Please Mrs Butler' by Allan Ahlberg, read by Emma Fielding
37 'Kubla Khan' by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, read by John Nettles
38 'Home-Thoughts, from Abroad' by Robert Browning, read by Greg Wise
39 'High Flight (An Airman's Ecstasy)' by John Gillespie Magee, read by Greg Wise
40 'The Owl and the Pussy-Cat' by Edward Lear, read by Emma Fielding
41 'The Glory of the Garden' by Rudyard Kipling, read by Greg Wise
42 'The Road Not Taken' by Robert Frost, read by Siobhan Redmond
43 'The Way through the Woods' by Rudyard Kipling, read by Emma Fielding
44 'Anthem for Doomed Youth' by Wilfred Owen, read by Greg Wise
45 'Bloody Men' by Wendy Cope, read by Siobhan Redmond
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What listeners say about The Nation's Favourite Poems
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Rcm
- 27-10-18
No index
Shame there is no index or list of poems in order of reading, this would help to locate a particular poem.
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5 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
- Kim
- 15-11-20
Poem within a poem?
Listening to Upon Westminster Bridge, suddenly Elizabeth Barrett Browning's How Do I Love Thee, Let Me Count the Ways, started. Has anyone else reported this?
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Wendy Jefferson
- 19-07-23
Poetry
Delightful . The time well spent. Lovely to sit and listen for an afternoon.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Helen
- 03-12-24
Not waving but driving
The index is a dog's dinner with poems omitted or distorted beyond recognition (by AI?). Wordsworth offers a host of golden defaulters; we meet the Lady of Charlotte; Kipling extols the borders beds and shrubberies in the Glory of the Gun; WH Davie praises Ledger; and Lewis Carroll introduces the Gabo Wake. There are more.
I was going to return this as my favourites (from the book and tapes) were missing, But they are here - they are just not listed in the chapter names.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- SimpleSybil
- 01-10-22
Shame about the choice of music.
This is a good collection of poems, beautifully read. The voices are relaxing. Unfortunately, the whole experience is spoiled by some, occasional, very jarring music. Whilst the inclusion of incidental music between the poems is a good idea it needs to be consistently soft and gentle to maintain the relaxing atmosphere.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Patj
- 11-07-17
Peaceful nostalgia mainly
Difficult to give stars for ' story' in poetry but as it is all written from the heart I have given 5. These poems are mostly what I have grown up with during my 80+ years and I loved hearing them read with a different emphasis from that which I am used to. The only thing I did not like was the music which was too loud between poems requiring me to lower the volume each time. I was so pleased to find these in Audible.
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5 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 06-10-18
A Lovely Compilation
It is a nicer book to read than to listen too, but a wonderful compilation nonetheless.
I would rather there were one "chapters" per poem, but I am very glad I bought it
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Paula09
- 21-11-18
Excellent readings; pity about the music
Must concur with the other reviews. John Nettles is brilliant. If he ever reads another anthology, I will buy it like a shot. His voice is warm and expressive, and his interpretation mostly excellent. I saw him in a completely different light. I just can't get past the music, which is hideous, overly loud, way too long, and often completely wrong for the mood of the poem. Mercifully the music disappears in the middle, but it sadly comes back towards the end. I have never wished so much for the ability to edit an audio track. Not sure I will listen to the book again, unless it is to make my own table of contents so I can jump straight to the Nettles readings without having to endure the interludes. (Don't get me started on the lack of useful tables of contents on Audible.)
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11 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Steph H
- 08-04-20
Very enjoyable
A lovely way to listen to these poems, will be listening to them again sometime.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
- Mr. R. Thomas
- 04-08-16
great book no advantage to buying it on audible
lack of reference makes it almost impossible to choose a particular poem. Get your act together Audible
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